Posted
by
Soulskill
on Monday April 04, 2011 @03:50PM
from the make-it-so dept.

kkleiner writes "Science is full of stories in which great discoveries are made by accident: the discovery of radiation, the discovery of the universe's shape through x-ray detection, and now perhaps the cure for hair loss. At the time they returned to the cages to find that their bald mice had miraculously grown their hair back, the scientists at UCLA had no intention of curing baldness. Originally, theirs was in fact a study aimed at reducing the harmful affects of chronic stress. The unanticipated side effect of their treatment could prove a boon to balding men and women everywhere, not to mention to the drug company that delivers the cure to them."

PETA will have a field day with this one, what with causing artificial stress in the mice to the point where they start losing hair? Think of their self esteem, think of premature heart attacks and strokes...

PETA will have a field day with this one, what with causing artificial stress in the mice to the point where they start losing hair? Think of their self esteem, think of premature heart attacks and strokes...

...and it was enough to turn Britney spears from an innocent mousekateer into a crazy wild tart.

PETA will have a field day with this one, what with causing artificial stress in the mice to the point where they start losing hair? Think of their self esteem, think of premature heart attacks and strokes...

The trauma to female mice.. when they see these bald mice returning to the general population with great big pompadours and new-found confidence, "Hey, Baby, come over to my corner of the cage tonight and we'll split some cheese."

PETA should be made to understand that a cure for baldness is worth sacrificing a few mice for. It's right up there with curing erectile dysfunction in the importance stakes. If the researchers had been researching something as mundane as a cure for cancer, or heart disease, then those PETA guys might have a point.

How and when you lose your hair is determined before birth (through a fetus' genes and the 'correctness' of homone programming during development (xx chromosomes should get estrogen, xy should get tetesterone). Every hair on your body will grow/fall an x number of times. Men with more tetesterone lose their hair sooner, and men with less keep a full head of hair until later in life, if they lose it at all. This has been scientific fact since the 1970's - I really don't understand why this is not common knowledge yet (perhaps so people will continue falling for those bullsh*t "hair recovery" commercials).

So when a man goes bald, the hair follicle is still there, it's just not producing hair anymore. According to TFA, researchers have managed to chemically 'trick' the follicle into producing hair again - but this will last only as long as the chemical is present; in its absence, the body will go back to its 'normal' pre-programmed (bald) state. In other words, if you stop taking the drug, you lose your hair.

The lucky grad students are the ones that don't get stuck with the night job in the Rat Room. No amount of washing will diminish the smell to the point of your being able to get a date. Your only hope is if the poor soul curating the dead shark collection is of the opposite sex.

The lucky grad students are the ones that don't get stuck with the night job in the Rat Room. No amount of washing will diminish the smell to the point of your being able to get a date. Your only hope is if the poor soul curating the dead shark collection is of the opposite sex.

I had English after Biology. Soon after entering the room our English instructor asked when we were going to be done dissecting those damn sharks. We told her we finished last week.

Fortunately this was high school so the male/female ratio in biology class was better than in college so there was some hope.

Meh, million of women mess around with their hormones every month just as a method of birth control, even though much more successful methods exist, and even though many (non-manogamous) should probably be using other methods anyway to protect against diseases. Most people have no problem with stuffing their body full of chemicals, especially when it's prescribe by a "doctor" or in a tasty meal.

Meh, million of women mess around with their hormones every month just as a method of birth control, even though much more successful methods exist, and even though many

(non-manogamous)

should probably be using other methods anyway to protect against diseases. Most people have no problem with stuffing their body full of chemicals, especially when it's prescribe by a "doctor" or in a tasty meal.

Actually, that's not true. According to this data [contracept...nology.org], women on the contraceptive pill experienced less than half the number of unplanned pregnancies than women who used condoms alone. Combining the two is pretty darn effective. Contraceptive pills also do nothing to limit the spread of disease.

In terms of preventing diseases, condoms would seem to be the only main option. I would doubt they are much better than hormones at contraception but they do deal with the disease problem.

Caveat: I don't know the error rate (or tolerance) for oral contraceptives, and I'm not even sure I've ever actually heard it. If the average woman misses say 1 pill a year, or 1 pill every six months or whatever the number is, what does that do to pregnancy risk compared to the supposed effects of taken optimal

I don't know the error rate (or tolerance) for oral contraceptives, and I'm not even sure I've ever actually heard it. If the average woman misses say 1 pill a year, or 1 pill every six months or whatever the number is, what does that do to pregnancy risk compared to the supposed effects of taken optimally

Nothing. She has to miss 2 pills to start having an effect.

You can't really 'forget' to wear a condom, well, maybe you can

Sure you can. You can forget to buy them, and be horny. Then you decide to just

Maybe this doesn't apply to you specifically, but hearing "natural family planning" irritates me to no end.

I went to a Catholic wedding last year. And they just went on and on and on and on and on and on about welcoming children and praying for the souls of women who'd had abortions and on and on about their natural family planning program at their church. And more about welcoming children, etc. etc. etc.

Then for the life of me I couldn't find a restroom with a changing table for my daughter.

Really? The only more successful ways of having sex without risk of pregnancy are surgeries that make it impossible or expensive to have kids in the future.

Wrongity, wrong-wrong, wrong. Gentlemen, I give you the future [wikipedia.org]. Physical implants and highly specific hormone receptor blockers, both reversible, both more cost-effective than either of the above, and both with control rates comparable to surgeries (which, amusingly, don't have perfect rates either.)

The current treatment (Propecia) restricts testosterone. I tried that and it completely eliminated my sex drive. After 8 months, I stopped, but I swear my drive never come back 100% and my hair fell out anyways. So yeah, going bald sucks but messing with your hormones is much worse.

Unfortunately, it's might not be your imagination. Hair loss drug linked to less libido, ED [upi.com] To be honest, that possibility wasn't even on my list of things to consider when I opted not to treat my baldness.

Many women report the same from contraceptive pills. They can't get pregnant; the irony is that once they start the pills, they have no interest in sex. There are many different types of pills, and it's possible that women who find their libido affected by one kind can find another that doesn't affect it, but working your way through the options can be a laborious process -- and since you don't have any real desire for sex anyway, it doesn't seem like much of a priority (at least, not until you look back on the last year and think, "wait a minute...").

Actually it's blocking the conversion of testosterone to DHT, dihydrotestosterone, through blocking of the 5-alpha reductase enzyme, but pretty close. DHT is a major factor in libido(as is healthy estrogen levels even in men btw)

Err, stress literally kills. The hormones it produces are toxic. A significant amount of people are stressed all the time and its only made worse by the 24/7 society.

Unlike our hunter-gatherer ancestors, we aren't sitting in the sun all day. We're not getting a short high stress event (killing an animal) and then relaxing the rest of the day. We're not getting this level of downtime anymore and chronic stress is common. Heck, Americans barely get vacation days.

Your society, your city, your processed food, your vitamin enriched food, the vaccines in your blood, etc are all technology that has nothing to do with how evolution shaped us for so long. Of course, we should be addressing stress, the same way we address horrible urban conditions with germ theory, cleaning, better sewage, soaps, and antibiotics.

Its a luddite position to think that your body and mind are well suited for modern living and anything controlling that is "unnatural." Its a luddite who says we shouldnt be playing with this. This pandora's box was opened long ago. Appeals to "the natural man" are a fallacy for this reason.

Adding relaxation techniques into your life can make such a significant change its not even funny. Its incredible how much stress we take for granted. Its not normal, its not healthy, and it is a problem. I'm very excited by this research. I hate the idea that its 100% socially acceptable to be a caffeine addict workaholic, but once we start talking about relaxation, downtime, stress, etc suddenly we're all so careful!

Its a luddite position to think that your body and mind are well suited for modern living

Indeed. Ned Ludd [wikipedia.org] was a big fan of Fred Taylor [wikipedia.org]. The two of them often went out for drinks together, in between rounds of machine-smashing and systematising the workforce.

Our predecessors had an average life expectancy approaching 80 years did they? That's right: if I keel over with a stress induced heart attack or stroke at 40 years old, I've still lived longer than the stress free peoples you're talking about. What's your point?

Well, there weren't "massive plagues" until after the creation of cities. So that's just about at the tail end of evolutionary time. You probably couldn't tell an average person then from an average person now by looking at his genes. (There's a few differences, but not many, and they don't appear significant.)

So recorded history isn't in it. When the Bible talks about "Methuselah lived 900 years", that's almost certainly a poetic exaggeration. But it's not totally rubbish. People probably lived a lot

1) We don't use the germ theory (and related) very well (do a quick search for MRSA Norway), likewise with cleaning and hygiene (going overboard with this one again probably contributing to some illnesses) or antibiotic over-prescription (people demanding - and getting - antibiotics for flu, WTF?! The way we're headed, antibiotics will become useless and we'll be pretty much back to early XX century). And better don't mention eating habits...

Human stress response evolved in a very different environment; there's a reasonable argument to be made that it isn't just useless but harmful these days. This may give you back your hair and make you healthier. We won't know till we try.

maybe a bad idea to go fucking around with that just because we want a full head of hair?Fuck.No.It's a brilliant idea.(says the bald man)

It's stilly only for mice. I don't know about you but for men often when the amount hair on the head decreases, the body makes it up for hair growth in the most disgusting places. I mean... hair on the back, in the nose, in the ears,...

Why don't the side effects ever make your dick grow? The side effects always seem to suck.

Because if someone develops anything that does that as a side-effect, that will quickly become the effect. New penis enlarger (side effects may include: hairiness, full bladder control, anxious mousiness)

Now, who wants to bet that a major food company who also owns a razor manufacturing plant will by the rights to this drug, pay off the government and convince them to label it an herbal food supplement, rename it something that sounds like it will cure cancer, then put small amounts into the food stuff they see.

Of course I didn't read the article. But hey, I've seen less believable conspiracies based on less facts flourish so don't blame me for trying my own 100 mile per gallon carburetor.

Just to poke my anti-socialist friends with a stick, I find it interesting that a publicly funded institute happened apon this discovery and not a private corporation.

There's nothing about this that indicates it could not have been achieved with private funds. Besides, the objective was to reduce stress, which is a lot more in the interest of the general welfare than most of what is publicly funded right now. It's also not a cure; its effects last for four months after the last dose, which is just a lot

This is barely a discovery. The researchers have apparently found a temporary cure for hair loss in mice that were genetically modified to secrete abnormally high levels of corticotropin-releasing factor. It is a big leap to go from there to a cure for baldness in humans.

There is a big difference between using force in general, and using force as a means of defense. All the state (i.e. the police) should be interested in is protecting people from the *initiation* of force. That means they'll use force to stop someone else from hurting you. It also means they should not be able to use force to go into your bank account and take your money from you. As is the case with socialism.

And then, on the following day, a drunk college student will pass out and have the formula smeared all over his face by his almost equally drunk 'friends'

Do people already do stuff like this with current solutions like rogain / minidoxal / whatever? One thought I had once was it is odd that people like body mods like surgery and piercing and hair dye and fooling around trimming and painting their nails, not to forget having their skin all permanently inked up, but even on the weirdest darkest corners of the internet I've never heard about people doing "alternative hair growth". You know those guys at the pro football games who take their shirts off so the

The current anti-male-pattern-baldness products interfere with the production or activity of 5-alpha-reductase [wikipedia.org] to reduce the amount of testosterone converted into dihydrotestosterone [wikipedia.org]. They are usually topical ointments that only affect hair follicles in the area of application. They do not promote hair growth, they merely disrupt the balding process. Since 5-alpha-reductase is localized in the scalp and the prostate, the application of 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors at other locations is pointless.

Mice are covered with hair. I envision getting an injection and suddenly sprouting hair... freaking everywhere. Also what happens if my eyebrows and nose hair are out of control already, and now I turbocharge them? And my back hair that already keeps me warm in the winter?

This is reported on a website that also reports the following "NEW" stories:1) Scare story about web traffic monitoring (around since the 90s)2) designer babies are coming (since the 40s or so, at least since t

This has nothing to do with male pattern baldness despite the grand title. It only allows showed the hair loss specifically related to stress to be reversed -- which actually can also happen on its own if you remove the stressor(s) that are causing it to occur.

This potential baldness cure is right up there with the attempt to control blood pressure and the subsequent discovery of VIAGRA. [wikipedia.org] Let's cure a deadly disease turns into let's make Meeellions!!

Kirk got a hairpiece stapled to his scalp... and he had no problems getting women.Picard was proud to be bald... and didn't seem to have problem getting women.Sisko shaved his head! He was married twice!

This is not news for nerds. If nerds know anything, it's not what's on top of their head, but what's in the captain's chair that counts.

Animal body hair human head hair. Animal body hair is analogous to human body hair, not human head hair. As we all know, when human males age, head hair tends to go, but body hair tends to sprout, especially out of the most repulsive places possible, such as the ears and the nose. There may be some kind of conservation of hair principle here. The obvious Darwinian explanation would be to prevent older men from breeding, although I'm not sure why.

I would pay almost any price straight out of pocket, without blinking. While the Kojack look is kinda cool ("I mean for you! Not for me," people say), I would do anything to have my (real, honest-to-god) hair back.